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“In this neighbourhood, everyone is like family,” Raquel Zarraga says of the poor barrio of Las Delicias, near the Colombia–Venezuela border.

“We feel comfortable and secure,” she adds, “even when we are living in a room without a door.”

Zarraga, 35, is one of nearly 600,000 Venezuelan migrants officially living in Colombia, though many suspect the true number to be closer to one million. They were driven from their country – once the most prosperous in Latin America – by a downward spiral of hyperinflation, high crime and shortages of essential goods.

“In Venezuela there was unemployment and lack of food,” Zarraga, originally from the north western town of Tinaquillo, tells i. “We had a house and services but ate only one meal a day.”

Displacement crisis

The extreme downturn, blamed by most analysts on the mismanagement of President Nicholas Maduro’s government, has led to the largest displacement crisis in the western hemisphere. Every day, thousands of Venezuelan migrants cross into Colombia, and there are severe concerns for their health and wellbeing.

Unknown numbers live in desperate and isolated conditions, vulnerable to sexual exploitation or forced recruitment by armed groups. In addition, relief workers are increasingly worried about the xenophobia migrants are encountering. Many have faced discrimination at the hands of Colombians who fear for their jobs.

Las Delicias. (Will Worley)

But in finding a home in Las Delicias, Zarraga says she has gained a new family. Situated on the south-western outskirts of Cúcuta, the notorious border city between Colombia and Venezuela, Las Delicias was unrecognised by the government until 2015.

The community – which still lacks basic infrastructure – is home to around 2,500 people, about half of whom are internally displaced persons (IDPs). After years of internal conflict, Colombia has one of the highest IDP rates in the world, with many people living on the fringes of society.

In solidarity

But in Las Delicias, the IDP’s shared experience of displacement has led to an extraordinary empathy and solidarity with the 270 newer arrivals from Venezuela.

“When I came to Colombia, I didn’t know anyone,” says Zarraga. “But after I met Graciella, our families shared a room for four months.”

“It’s very sad to see people in the streets with kids and no food to eat. We help with our hearts and our hands.”

Graciella Sanchez, 39, is a long-term Las Delicias resident and an IDP from Colombia’s Caqueta department. She was forced to flee her home in 2007, after she received an anonymous letter telling her that she could no longer sell food to the military from her small restaurant.

“I decided to leave and travel very far away,” she says. “I left everything, my house, my possessions, and came just with my kids. I didn’t know anyone in Cúcuta.”

A decade later, the deepening crisis in Venezuela led to the arrival of migrants like Zarraga and her family.

Local empathy

“It reminds me of my own situation,” Sanchez says. “Many people had to flee in Colombia and abandon everything.”

After the pair met, Sanchez let Zarraga’s family stay for free in her small house.

“We all lived together for four months, 10 or 11 people under the same roof,” she says. Then, Sanchez had her property extended for her friend’s family, where they now sleep.

Raquel Zarraga (left) and Graciella Sanchez (right). (Will Worley)

“I gave her the room because it was the same thing when I was displaced,” Sanchez says.

“I came here alone, with only my kids. I understand what they are living through.”

The cramped living conditions – three mattresses lie on the floor in a bare brick room – are a step down from Zarraga’s former home in Venezuela. In a front room, there is a wheelbarrow of jerry cans – her daughter, Roxana, a 19-year-old former medical student, illicitly sells petrol by the road for a meagre income.

Life without fear

But here, Zarraga says, her family can eat three times a day and live without the fear of violence that stalks life in Venezuela.

“I left some of my family in Venezuela, but Graciella is like a new family to me,” she says. “I don’t feel neglected, I feel good.”

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), which was previously working with IDPs in the community, has adapted its strategy in Las Delicias and across Colombia to deal with the influx of Venezuelan migrants.

Las Delicias. (Will Worley)

The agency’s workers are concerned about the impact the migration crisis will have on Colombia and fear that the political response has been lacking.

This is echoed by community leaders from Las Delicias and other nearby settlements, who say that resources are already too overstretched to cope with more newcomers.

Stark generosity

But there is also widespread sympathy among Las Delicias residents for their new neighbours. Other Venezuelan families ispoke to also shared stories of stark generosity from their neighbours, who are largely IDPs.

Among them, Lisseth Portillo, 33, who was given a plot of land for free by Luzdelly Mosquera’s family, after she was evicted from a previous home.

Mosquera, an IDP, highlights an important aspect of the current crisis – many Colombians sought refuge in Venezuela during the country’s conflict. Now, the tables have turned.

“We want to help because Venezuelans opened the doors to Colombians in the past,” Mosquera says.

“It’s very sad to see people in the streets with kids and no food to eat,” she adds. “We help with our hearts and our hands.”

Drunk tourists in Mallorca who 'cause a public nuisance' to face fines

Egg Boy: teenager donating money raised for him to New Zealand victims

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